We're showing off San Francisco to
the new girl in our sorcery school.
She senses (and thus, I fear, may lure)
beings from other planes--though I'm unsure
whether they're animals, people, or
transhuman forces--weaves of pure power!

A shadow falls. Look up. Past glass towers
a silent slice of bright orange ring
skyfloats, linked to a rod blocks long.
Starship, or praying mantis? This thing
she's drawn is... how vast? Can't see it all--
the scrapers hide wide swaths. Below,
pigeons, cars and crowds all fall
hushed, still as eclipse. And we too go
silent, bow heads, close eyes. Off it glides,
a King Kong crab. Or ship. Or geometric cloud.
Slowly terror fades; we dare to talk aloud.

Talk with a classmate I've longed to befriend:
small, lovely, brilliant. But shadowed by
that awful levitant, all we can talk
is shop: such inadvertent gramarye.

We've evolved the same method to
keep Godzillas from breaking through:
mentally, we fire-walk round
their outlines. Soul-silhouettes!
We think round unthinkables, and yet
never think of them, and thus do not
manifest Things we might regret.
At least not often. Not fatally. Yet.

Here in the City, our caution feels right.
Mages dwell on lonely shores
not for their own peace and quiet!
For yours, my friend. For yours.

Brilliant classmate I have a crush on:Emily Joy, a fellow dreamworker I'm in love with. Madeline's letter was mostly on Em and me.

Thinking of 'em summons 'em: Hogwarts students fear saying "Voldemort" will summon him. A hoary folk motif, but cognitive therapy's proved it. You summon what you dwell on. So learn the mental outlines of depression or paranoia and think around them!

The dream suggests Em and I are dangerously good at manifesting, but restrain it by not-thinking. "Mind what you wish for--you might get it."

A design I saw for a supersonic jet with a tubular wing. That hints this thing's also built to pierce some phase-barrier where fishlike streamlining won't smooth the shockwaves: the speed of light? dreams manifesting physically?